Customer Reviews

Muscle Logic : Escalating Density Training

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I liked Muscle Logic as a book, and it appears to make a decent workout program when you use the principles outlined therein. This is unlike a lot of workout books in that it is not presenting a number of workout routines to follow, as many (most?) do, it shows the reader a novel system that is easy to judge progress, guarantee progressive overload in most workouts (all?), and how to manage the progression of weights, as well as a system that can prevent or stop overtraining.

New and Old

The basic principles used in EDT are old ones: Progressive overload, controlling the tempo of your lifting, attention to form, measuring progress.

The questions most amateur (and some pro's no doubt) lifters have that this system addresses:
- How long should you lift? (and "I don't have 2 hours a day to do this!")
- How can you guarantee progressive overload?
- How can you measure progress?
- When is it most effective to increase or decrease weight?
- How many reps are the best?

Muscle Logic has a novel system that answers these questions and does it is a simple manner that is both easy to track, and simple to do.

I won't spoil the system (you have to get the book for that!) but I will present some highlights:

- You lift weights for a predetermined time (15 minutes is his suggestion)
- You use moderate weights lifted explosively and with perfect form
- You work antagonistic pairs (supersets)
- You lift as many sets of small reps as you can
- When you reach a certain number of total reps (up or down) you change weight

This is a very simple and very effective system, though you may not think so when reading it!

Simple and Complex

The book has a few negatives: The concept is so simple, that the author has a hard time putting it into words. When reading it, I got the distinct impression it could be summarized on a couple of pages in a brochure, though the author was not able to do so for whatever reason.

When in the "Menu" section of the book (all these sorts of books seem to have this) I got the distinct impression it was "tacked on" since the book seems to be more about crafting your own workout routine rather than following the author's.

Conclusion

This book is worth the price of admission. The system seems to work - using this I can get the same result as some of my best workouts much more consistently, and the results seem to be more assured since these principles will all but guarantee progressive overload and make progress tracking (& adjustment) much easier.

Overall, the book seems to make perfect sense. And like the author asks, I'm giving him 8 weeks on his program. However, the math in some of his workout routines as far as total time goes is off and the comparison of his system to the old 3/10 method has some math errors in it too. A few of the reviews I read about this book made it sound easier to understand than it really was... for me anyway.
Anyway, 4 weeks into the system and I have to agree that recovery is faster, fatigue is lower, sorness is minimal and it's a gem of system for time management. I hope at the end of my 8 weeks that I can tout the success of my muscle development.
The only downside I can see to his suggestions is access to equipment and the need to track your progress on paper as you exercise. I'm not one to carry paper and pencil around with me, but trying to remember 8 sets, how many reps. and at what weight is a bit difficult. Also, the equipment in my gym in not set up to perform his suggested exercise routines efficiently.
Overall, the lack of fatigue and sorness and speedy recovery time was worth the price of the book. If the end result is what he promises, then my hat is off to the author.

I have been following the EDT program since early March...3 days a week for 45 minutes of intense exercise. I am 72 years old and have been weight training since I was 66 years old to stay fit, battle the bulge, and maintain better health.I really like the intensity, the time limits, and the need to plan a routine. Most importantly I am much less fatigued than the traditional pump and grind program caused. I recommend the book and the program highly.Great for home work outs and for time short persons.

This book has some great ideas and overall is based on solid theory. However, it has some major problems. First of all, even though it says you can do this workout at a busy gym, it's rather difficult. The basic program is that you work on 15 minutes sessions, going back and forth between two exercises during that 15 minute period, trying to complete as many reps as possible. Not only do you have to commandeer two pieces of equipment but if you're working out with a partner your partner will not be able to workout on the same equipment at the same time, because that would hinder your rush from one exercise to the next. There's also the problem of spotting. The point is to reach muscle fatigue during your sets. If you're doing that on an exercise like a squat, you will need two spotters just in case you falter on the last rep. Another problem is that the exercises, with A-B splits and different body splits becomes very complicated and difficult to adapt to your own personal workout. Finally, while several sample programs are included in the book, the author makes absolutely no effort to explain which muscle groups each exercise hits. This book has a lot of promise, but dropped the ball about half-way through. Incomplete though it is, you might be able to get something from it, depending on how knowledgeable you are about weightlifting in general.

This was a a decent book, however I believe that the author put a lot of effort into explain a relatively simple concept (that in parts and even somewhat in total have been around for quite a few years!). This could have just as easily been a pamphlet, with the reader instructed to refer to a good book outlining exercises - since exercise photos take up a considerable volume of the book.

Aspects discussed such as progressive overloading, controlling the tempo of your lifting, paying strict attention to form, measuring progress (the old Volume Method of "X amount of Volume in Y amount of Time"), and things like supersets of antagonist muscles have been around a long, long time.

So I overall found it one additional tool that could be used in a part of using the concept of constantly changing lifting programs, but was just made too difficult (in writing) for what the author was clearly trying to say... and it for the most part simply wasn't really anything "new".

... and intense. I just started training with this method and immediately became a huge fan. The workouts are only 15 minutes long the first few weeks, but they are very effective. Plus, they really tax the cardiovascular system, so they're great for the heart as well.

In general, you alternate two exercises for opposing muscle groups, starting with sets of 5 reps and doing as many sets as possible in the time frame. Every workout is a competition to beat the number of reps you did last time. So, it's great for stoking the competitive fires during training.

I'm only 3 weeks into this program and I can already feel and see the changes in my body. And this is after working out seriously for two years now on other methods.

I highly recommend this book!

Calisaxman has it right. EDT is GREAT in theory and I wish I could test it out...but it's impossible to put to use in a commercial gym because you always need to tie up 2 pieces of equipment at once. I even work out at odd times when the gym is less crowded but there's always someone else who wants to use a station I'm using. Staley seems smart and if you have your own very well-equipped private gym I'm sure it would work for you. Wish I did.

I would highly recommend this book for people simply interested in exercising for overall fitness, but I wouldn't recommmend it for the serious weightlifter. Overall, I thought the concepts in this book were pretty good, and from reading other reviews it seems that people are having good results using this new approach to weight lifting. My only complaint is that the author made some rather bold statements without citing references, and while I don't doubt his sincerity, I would have liked to have seen references cited for some of them. For me, the biggest example of this was when he stated that the number of reps a person does per set (ie- low reps for strength, higher reps for mass or muscle tone) is not as important as doing as many reps as possible with as much weight as possible in a 15 minute period. This may be true for people exercising solely for fitness, but a powerlifter or bodybuilder would disagree.

I actually really like this book. One of the best things about the book is not so much what he says, but what he disproves. For instance, he disproves that you have to do "supplements" to get big (ever see pictures of guys like Charles Atlas ?). He also attacks some of the ideas like "you have to raise the weight slowly". He shows that Olympic athletes do very intense, fast lifting [without injury, too]. This overloads the muscle. How many of us have been "brainwashed" into thinking we have to do 3 x 12 of our weights (that is what I thought). To me, it just makes sense to lift fast and try to do "more" in every workout, as Charles suggests, rather than doing 3 x 12 of the same thing, workout after workout. I think that his "quality over quantity" is a philosophy that we, as he suggests, can use not just in exercise, but in all areas of our lives. The book is a bit heavy on jargon (what was "10RM weight" again ??). But I still highly recommend it.

This book requires forgetting what you know and trusting the author. When reading the book I thought that there was no way I could get an effective workout in 15 minutes doing two exercises. After my first session I was so wiped out that it took a few days to recover, but recovery was different from a typical 3x10 set based workout. This book will challenge your body in different ways, which promotes muscle growth.

I enjoyed the fact I could set a timer on my iPhone/iPod and then when the music stopped I was done!

The negatives in the book are the exercise routines. They are not laid out well and I believe my book is missing a page.

Slight adjustments to the routines are needed and hopefully the editing will improve with future publications. However, EDT will kick your butt. If you're looking to try something different and can approach the routines with an open mind you'll be a believer.